Scientist Michael Mann argued that the United States “must go far beyond the obligations of Paris” as President Joe Biden rejoined the Paris climate agreement.
“We must maintain the commitments now if we are to stay on track to prevent a catastrophic warming of three degrees Fahrenheit,” Mann, the author of ‘The New Climate War’, said in a Friday night interview on CNBC’s’ The News with ‘said. Shepard Smith. “We must increase our commitments and the other countries in the world must do the same.”
The move to reintroduce the Paris climate agreement was a departure from the Trump administration’s climate policy. In 2017, former President Donald Trump announced that he wanted to withdraw from the agreement. He formally notified the United Nations in 2019, and the US left the Paris agreement the following year after a waiting period. Mann explained that during that time, the United States had lost “four years’ chance here of tackling the biggest challenge we face.”
Joel Rubin, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Obama-Biden Administration, told The News with Shepard Smith that there is now a higher standard for America’s return to the world war on climate change .
“The world has transitioned from the US leadership on climate change and will be skeptical about our commitment to stay involved,” said the national security expert, who has worked on climate change policies and renewable energy programs in the Clinton and Bush administrations. “It has always been the albatross around the US role in multilateral climate diplomacy – a lack of strong legislative support for it.”
Domestically, the crisis in Texas has exposed how vulnerable power networks can be during extreme weather, warning experts that climate change could get worse. Homeland Security adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall even underlined the danger of climate change during a White House press conference on Thursday.
“The extreme weather conditions we are experiencing this week in the central, southern and now eastern United States once again show us that climate change is real and that it is happening now and that we are not adequately prepared for it,” Sherwood-Randall said.
Mann explained that climate change amid icy temperatures could be a factor contributing to the anxiety in Texas.
“There is evidence that climate change could lead to an increase in the incidence of these types of events, but there is no doubt that if we look at all the extreme weather conditions we have seen in recent years, unprecedented heat waves and droughts and wildfires and superstorms, we can see the fingerprint of human influence on our climate in these devastating events, ‘Mann said.
Rubin said Biden’s next task is to pass legislation to create meaningful change in reducing America’s carbon footprint, so what happens in Texas no longer happens often.
“If we do this, not only will it be a strong signal to the world that we are serious, it will also ultimately break the Gordian knot that has undermined America’s credibility on the world stage when it comes to fighting climate change,” “Rubin said. “It’s a vital political struggle. It’s going to be cruel, but the alternative of not having it is much worse.”